The idea for Amour et Vengeance started from a news story about a French farmer who had plowed up some human bones. After an investigation a local man came forward to explain the five skeletons buried in the field.

This Frenchman was in the Resistance during World War II. His group attacked a German post and captured five German soldiers. They held the Germans as prisoners of war for some days, moving them from one farm to another to keep from being discovered. The Allied army stalled and didn’t advance to their town as they had expected. So they shot the five Germans and buried them in the farmer’s field.

Beckman imagined the inner turmoil that the executioners must have had in shooting young men that they had fed, guarded, and got to know their names. This seemed like the basis for an interesting story.

Beckman lives in Fort Worth, Texas. He and his wife, Marlene, are avid bicycle riders.